David Cronenberg’s The Fly ranks as one of the great horror films. In many ways a throwback to 50s monster movies, it marries Cronenberg’s obsessions with sex and science to a classic tale of man playing god. And of course who can forget the main attraction – Brundlefly.
That transformation from Jeff Goldblum to Brundlefly actually serves as the focus of today’s post.
Give the Audience Story Markers
Few things are as frustrating as feeling adrift within a story. You’re not sure why things are happening, what goals the characters are working towards, and how far along we are in the process. This lack of clarity removes stakes and makes it difficult for audiences to track your story.
Providing a clear way to track progress instantly helps ground the audience. This can be achieved a variety of ways, depending on the story. A sports movie might let you know how many games left until the playoffs. A romcom could remind you what tasks need to be finished before the wedding.
As for The Fly – it gives you Brundle’s transformation to track the story’s progress. Once we enter Act 2, after Brundle has gone through the teleporter and become merged with a fly, the countdown has begun until disaster. The audience knows that a bad thing has happened, the question is how long is left.
And with every step forward in the story, the impending monster gets shown by Brundle’s worsening condition.
While we don’t have a concrete number of days left, we understand instinctually how much worse things have gotten with each transformation. Time is running out for Brundle in disgusting fashion. And because with each check in he has so clearly devolved further, we feel the story advance rather than just spin its wheels.
Not only that, but because these special effects are part of the appeal, we actually look forward to each next stage. We want to be told how far along we are, because we want to discover the next horrifying sight Cronenberg’s cooked up for us.
The Take-Away
You can mark progress in your story a variety of ways. The best ones connect this to the promise of the premise, as with The Fly, where we simultaneously get the goods of a disgusting transformation and an understanding of how far the story has come.
The important thing, though, is to ground your audience. Give them a concrete sense of where they are in the story. This way they don’t have to worry about what’s happening and why and instead just enjoy the ride.